Cong to revise ‘anti-people laws’, says mother Ramesh on CAA repeal | India News

NEW DELHI: Congress secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh on Friday said the party’s stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was clearly stated in its manifesto, which vowed to review and abolish “all anti-people laws” of the BJP government change. However, he refused to explicitly say whether the controversial law would be repealed.

Senior Congress politician P. Chidambaram had last month said that CAA would be scrapped once the INDIA bloc gets elected. Interestingly, CAA found no mention in the party manifesto, which was prepared under Chidambaram’s chairmanship.

When asked whether the party would withdraw the CAA, Ramesh said TOI“I am not commenting on what Chidambaram said. What he said is his personal view. I rely on the manifesto approved by him as chairman of the committee and by Congress and the party’s working committee. I express the party’s position. The word CAA does not appear in the manifesto.” However, he said Congress believed it was unconstitutional to make religion the basis of reservation and citizenship.

“We opposed CAA in Parliament on the grounds that it grants citizenship on the basis of religion. Our Constitution does not provide for reservation or citizenship on the basis of religion,” Ramesh added.

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The Congress manifesto said: “We pledge that all anti-people laws passed by the BJP-NDA without proper parliamentary scrutiny and debate, especially those relating to workers, farmers, criminal law, environment and forests and digital data protection will be thoroughly reviewed and amended . .”